Anyway...here's the story. The first line and a link.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/16/sport/ka ... index.htmlNBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar hospitalized after falling and breaking hip at concert
By Andy Rose, CNN
NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was hospitalized Friday night after falling and breaking his hip, according to his longtime business partner
First things first. I'm very sorry to hear about this mishap and hope they've got his pain managed while they work with him. He's faced some pretty serious health challenges in his life and now this which seems wholly unfair. He also developed AFIB and as a fellow/sister Afibber, I hate that anyone has it in whatever form it takes because it is it's own brand of misery.
Here is the point I want to make because I see and hear it over and over again online and in real life, and it's a mistake.
See where it ways "after falling and breaking his hip"? We hear that all the time don't we? Usually it's a woman of a certain age who we hear fell and broke her hip.
That's likely NOT what happened and I just want to raise awareness about it.
So we look at Mr Abdul-Jabbar and wonder how even considering his advanced age, an athlete such as him could fall and break his hip. We seem to sort of accept it as a part of aging in older women, but Kareem? Surely not.
Here is how I see what happened with him and what is going on there.
He didn't fall and break his hip. They've got it exactly backwards. His hip broke and then he fell. That's usually the case of what happens when we here about this type of injury.
We hear about older women and we think oh well, it's a product of aging and while can be, that's not the whole story and actually the whole story would take me pages to write about so let me focus on Kareem.
Kareem has been fighting chronic myeloid luekemia. I don't know what his treatment has been to date but I can share with you that many or most of the cancer fighting medications carry with them a serious side effect: bone loss.
And so I think that's what we're probably seeing in this account and in his health history. Can I prove that his med caused bone loss? No. But I'll check that out and what I can do is raise awareness.
So when we hear about folks with broken hips, fractured femurs, and such, what can be done for them?
TONS!!!
In the olden days women in particular died from their hip fractures. The good news is that today we have, well, for lack of a better description: miracle drugs that can grow new bone.
We've all heard the names of Fosamax which used to be the gold standard for treatment of bone loss but not any more.
In the case of fractures, it is more likely that docs will go directly to the newer anabolic medications such as Teriparatide, Romosozumab, and Abaoloparatide which are now considered the gold standard for treatment of bone loss and to heal fractures. These are actually used to treat fractures in athletes as well because they can heal those fractures rather quickly.
That's not the whole story.
The anabolics must be followed up with an antiresorptive medication such as the old Fosamax and there's another way to administer the meds in 3 month rounds...3 months: anabolic, 3 month's: antiresorptive, etc. The whole process will take about 4 years. Whereas if you begin with the anabolic, that's 2 years time, then follow up with the antiresorptive med.
Why do both? Because when the anabolic is growing new bone, that new bone is soft. The antiresportive slows down bone cell turnover and so while it interrupts that natural process, it helps to "harden" the new bone faster.
Here I mainly wanted to raise the issue of how we understand hip fractures and how that's inaccurate.
I do have another issue to raise for which Kareem is the perfect example but that will have to wait for later in the day. I do wish to address it primarily because in this forum we discuss women's right to quality health care and I've got something to put on the table about that.
Later
